Portsmouth varsity plans £53m sports facility

Article by Coliseum, published July 10, 2018

Image: uopnews.port.ac.uk

University of Portsmouth was granted planning permission to build a £53 million sports facility by the Portsmouth City Council, the British university announced on its official news portal, adding the new facility will be available for students, stand and community use.

The new sports venue (venue design) will include an eight-court sports hall, eight-lane 25m swimming pool, fitness suite, multipurpose studios, squash courts, climbing wall and a ski simulator. The building will also have teaching facilities, office space and an underground car park.

“The new facility will significantly transform the student experience, promoting health and wellbeing through the provision of a wide range of sports and fitness activities, and strengthen connections with rest of the city. It will also enhance the University’s sport and fitness related research and innovation programmes,” the university’s news portal wrote.

The report added that the facility building will be located by the junction of Cambridge Road and Museum Road and has been sensitively designed to appear as a pavilion within Ravelin Park.

With a predominantly glazed ground floor, users of the pool will feel as if they are swimming in the park. Inside the building there will be views of the wide range of sporting activities with the climbing wall, rising up through the heart of the building, it said.

The project will also include improvements to Ravelin Park, including an entrance plaza between the sports building and the Library, new pedestrian routes, an urban orchard, increasing the number of trees in the park and opening up views to the historic buildings on Museum Road, according to the report. The design aims to set new standards for sustainability and to be one of the UK’s greenest sports facilities.

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